Dream Prophecy
by The Hermione Granger Fan Club
Summary: One night in Manticore, a young Jace has a prophetic dream...


DISCLAIMER: Fox and James Cameron's, not mine.   
  
* * *   
  
Out of all the young X5s of Manticore, Jace considered herself the best soldier. She wasn't as old as Zack or Zane or Tinga, but she could hold her fire well as any of them. She could run fast as any of them. She felt that she was just as good a fighter as any X-series, older or stronger or faster. Jace's private motto was, 'Anything that they can do I can do equally well or better.'   
  
Some might have thought this to be vanity on Jace's part, but there was one claim everyone knew was true. Jace always followed orders. She never took the easy way out. She would have every bone in her body broken and be gunned to death by a firing squad if it only meant accomplishing the objective. Jace despised rule-breaking and if the others weren't up to scratch, she made it her job to tell on them to whatever adults would listen.   
  
The others scorned her for it. After she would tell on Brin, Brin would stalk past her in the line for supper and hiss, "Colonel's pet." into Jace's ear. Tinga would bump into her on purpose. Krit once short-sheeted her bed. That had earned him a day in solitary confinement, but the others had said as loudly as they dared that, "... it was worth it. Jace deserved it."   
  
It was the end of the day and Jace was in bed. There'd been a training exercise in the forest and Brin had twisted her ankle. The other members of the team- Syl, Zane, Ben, Zack and Eva- had crowded around her as she lay on the ground. The other team were closing in with tranquiliser darts. There wasn't time, Jace had thought as she stood behind everyone else, to help Brin. After all, the Colonel had given them express directions not to cheat. Then again, the team with the most members still moving would win.   
  
Jace said loudly as Ben and Zane had pulled Brin up with an arm around each of their shoulders, "Helping Brin is cheating. I'll tell if you don't put her down right now!"   
  
Zane had had a very long day. He was dirty- more than usual-, he was tired from not sleeping the night before, he was hungry because Jace had told on him for some inexcusable hijink like using too much soap in the showers and he'd had his rations taken away. "Jace, you're such a baby," he said venomously. "We're supposed to be loyal to each other, not the enemy."   
  
"Cheating is the enemy and must be stopped," she said automatically.   
  
"You're the enemy for not letting us help Brin!" yelled Zane. "You won't grow up like the rest of us, Jace, that's for sure."   
  
They'd started moving off without her. Jace had glared at him. Who did he think he was? Could Zane block punches like she could? Could he hold his breath as long, swim as strongly, jump as high? And who had learned to tie their shoelaces first, Jace or Zane? She was the better soldier.   
  
In bed, Jace's eyes closed and she began to dream...  
  
Jace was sitting in the back of an SUV with the others. It rumbled along a supposedly winding road, bumping them up and down. There was something weird about them, something Jace couldn't quite put her finger on...   
  
Then it hit her. They'd all aged about ten years.   
  
They sat, motionless with the big, important-looking guns, the kind that they weren't allowed to handle yet in their laps. All of them had hair. Tinga's was so long Jace couldn't see where it ended. She was most likely sitting on it.   
  
All wore black uniforms and sturdy boots. Zane and Ben had grown very tall.   
  
There were two X5s that Jace didn't recognise at first glance. One was female, with pretty blonde hair like Syl's. She was sitting beside the driver, who Jace knew instantly as Zack. Then there was a man. He was a little bit short for an X5 male, but looked young, so Jace guessed him to be Jack. She presumed the blonde in the front passenger seat was Eva.  
  
Oddly, there was but one who was still young- Jace herself. She still had a crew-cut and wore her pyjamas, with no shoes. Jace had no weapon of any kind and although the others did not speak, nobody seemed to acknowledge her presence.   
  
Syl, who was sitting beside Jace, snickered suddenly. In the silence, everyone looked at her with raised eyebrows. She started to execute a few signs of an extremely complex military sign language that was completely different to the one Jace knew. The others grinned- Jondy even let out a soft giggle.   
  
The SUV stopped abruptly. Zack thumped on the dashboard with his fist twice and the doors swung open by themselves. In unison, everyone else jumped up and hopped out as though they had spent years rehearsing how to climb out of an SUV without bumping into each other.   
  
The doors nearly slammed shut in Jace's face as she scrambled out awkwardly. It was as though they couldn't be bothered to wait for her.   
  
Everyone had formed a circle. Jace had to push her way in- the adult Brin and Syl moved only the slightest fraction. It was like they considered her so small she needed no space.   
  
Zack, who seemed to be at the circle's head, started doing more of the military sign language. Although Jace hadn't the slightest clue what he was saying to them, she guessed it was something along the lines of, "Get into pairs." Each adult X5 paired with the person standing beside them. Syl reached over Jace's head to get to Brin, who gave a brief smile that seemed to accept Syl as her partner.   
  
Was this an exercise?  
  
Simultaneously, they cocked their guns and sped off. Jace gave a shriek of, "Hey, wait for me!" and tried to catch up, but they were faster, so much faster than she was. In seconds they'd all disappeared.   
  
The land was barren and hilly. There was dry grey grass that crackled underfoot and angry-looking clouds rolled across the sky at an unnatural rate. If Jace used her enhanced vision to zoom in as much as was possible, she could make out the blurred form of a wire fire what seemed to be thousands of miles in the distance.   
  
She set off, jogging. After a few minutes of trying desperately to catch up with them, she ran into a pair in a sandy bank between two hills.   
  
They were the two she had guessed were Jack and Eva. Jack was having a seizure- his gun hung lifelessly from a strap around his shoulders as he jerked in the crook of one of Eva's arms. Eva seemed afraid, but set. Without any effort, she held Jack up and carried her gun with the one hand.   
  
Jace skidded to a halt. "Eva!" she cried. "Eva, what's happening? Here, let me take Jack's gun from him-"   
  
She reached forward, expecting the grown-up Eva to ignore her like everyone had in the SUV, but she turned to Jace sharply. "Don't you dare!" she snapped. "You didn't grow up like the rest of us, Jace. Go away, you're a liability to the mission."   
  
"But what IS the mission?" asked Jace. Eva wasn't listening. She stepped from foot to foot, looking all around as though she could see something that Jace couldn't.   
  
Suddenly, Eva gasped and began shooting at thin air. There were invisible enemies all around, and even though Jack was in no position to help, Eva courageously tried to get them both out of there. Not Jace. Jace hadn't grown up like the rest of them.   
  
"Stay back!" she screamed, pulling Jack up a little. His eyes were rolling back in his head. Jace tried to stay close behind Eva, who'd started shooting at nothing again.   
  
The enemy seemed to lunge forward, forcing Eva to drop Jack. She looked sadly at him for a split second before firing a hail of bullets in the air. Then she ran off, leaving Jack on the ground.   
  
Jace looked around. She knew the enemy were still there. That thought had never scared her so much.   
  
There was a soft footfall, a tread of somebody moving closer to her. Jace abruptly jumped about six feet into the air and scrambled up the bank, leaving Jack to the enemy.  
  
She ran. Once she thought she saw Jondy and Krit. She called to them but they ran off without her.   
  
Enemies... enemies all around... they were chasing her. She was running as fast as she could and any non-transgenic would never have been able to keep up with her. They were closing in.   
  
She reached the fence at about the same time as Zack and Tinga. The enemy seemed to fall back as many of the other pairs arrived.   
  
Eva was the last to get there. Everyone automatically formed a line. She staggered into line, a big graze over her right eye. Jace didn't know what was happening.   
  
In a split second, Eva whirled around, holding out her gun. Everyone shied from foot to foot like restless beasts, goggling at the invisible enemies. Even Zack did not make a move to help Eva, who stood alone, aiming, her blue eyes narrowed in fear and concentration.   
  
Even the X5 wasn't fast enough, and she fell to the ground from an unseen bullet. Jace gaped in wordless horror as blood pooled across the front of her uniform, darkening it evermore.   
  
Some of the X5s gasped, but they were set. They tensed and, to Jace's amazement, they leaped over the fence in perfect unison and landed on their feet on the other side. Would she be able to do that when she grew up?  
  
She couldn't do it now, that was for sure. She jumped at the fence and started climbing, but in a terrifying second felt something grab her ankle. Jace clung desperately to the fence. She was phenomenally, unnaturally strong for a child, but this enemy was even stronger and would pull her down in roughly ten seconds. The wires cut into her fingers. She couldn't go forward, only back. She was afraid.   
  
"Come back!" she screamed as the others ran off. "We're a family- you can't leave without me! Help me, please!"   
  
Only the older version of Max turned around as the others sped past her. "You didn't grow up like the rest of us, Jace!" she yelled, She was smiling cruelly at Jace, her dark eyes dancing with malice. "And you're the only one who's not getting out of here!"  
  
Her voice sounded very far away. All in a second, Jace was almost ripped from the fence and thrown to the the grass. She screamed as she stared right into Eva's lifeless eyes...   
  
Jace awoke. She was shivering uncontrollably and wondered for a split second whether she was having a seizure, but no- Jace didn't get seizures.  
  
It was still night. She was terribly afraid and mortified because she found tears rolling down her cheeks. Good soldiers didn't ever cry. She covered her face with her hands and tried to make herself stop but she couldn't... she just couldn't.   
  
In the next cot, Jondy, Max and Eva were curled up together. They had been giggling in a childish kind of way, the perfect picture of sisterhood. Eva's head was on Max's shoulder and they were recovering from a fit of the giggles, smiling at the ceiling. In almost perfect unison reminiscent of the dream, they turned to Jace's cot where she hugged her knees, whimpering.   
  
Jondy's face held concern, and she began to speak. "Jace? Jace, are you OK? What's the ma-"   
  
Jace growled in annoyance pulled the covers over her head. Having the others see her cry was something she never liked.   
  
There was a pause. Jace sensed Eva reaching out her hand and laying it on the part of her head showing from under the grey blanket. It was warm and immensely comforting. Jace gave a small sniffle. She clenched her hands into fists and held them up against her face under the covers of her cot.   
  
Eva stroked the stubble of Jace's hair in a meditative sort of way for a few seconds, an unspoken plea to stop crying. Jace stopped.   
  
Unbelievably, even Max and Jondy fell asleep when the three X5 sisters went back into Jondy's cot. Jace sat up and looked around the dormitory in the moonlight.   
  
There they all were. Still the same age. They slept, looking as innocent as they ever looked. She couldn't even imagine them with the blood of criminals on their hands and faces, or toting guns, or having seizures. What exactly Jace knew, deep down, was so wrong about all these things even Jace didn't know. But for the first time in weeks, Jace smiled a true smile.   
  
"It's OK," she whispered. "It was only a dream, soldier. Eva's not going to die and neither is Jack. And I'm going to grow up like them. Wherever they get out of... I'm getting out too. Nothing like that is ever going to happen." 


End file.
